Business Insider is an American financial and business news website published by Insider Inc. It operates international editions in the UK, Australia, China, Germany, France, South Africa,[2] India, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Nordics, Poland, Spain and Singapore. Several International editions are published in local languages: Chinese, Dutch, French, Italian, German,[3] Polish[4] and Japanese.[5]

Contents

History

Business Insider was launched in 2007 and is based in New York City. Founded by DoubleClick's former CEO Kevin P. Ryan, Dwight Merriman, and Henry Blodget,[6] the publication is a brand of Silicon Alley Insider (began May 16, 2007) and Clusterstock (started March 20, 2008).[7] In addition to providing and analyzing business news, the site aggregates news stories on various subjects from around the web. It reported a profit for the first time ever in the 4th quarter of 2010.[8] In June 2012, it had 5.4 million unique visitors.[9] In 2015 Axel Springer SE acquired 88% of the stake in Business Insider Inc. for $343 million (€306 million).[10]

Business Insider also hosts industry conferences, such as IGNITION,[11] which explores the emerging business models of digital media. In January 2015, Business Insider launched BI Intelligence,[12] a subscription-based research service that provides data and analysis on the mobile, payments, eCommerce, social, and digital media industries. The site publishes numerous annual editorial franchises, such as the "Digital 100: The World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies."[13]

Tech Insider

In July 2015, Business Insider began the technology website Tech Insider, with a staff of 40 people working primarily from the company's existing New York headquarters, but originally separated from the main Business Insider newsroom.[14] However, Tech Insider was eventually folded into the Business Insider website.[15]

BI Sub-Saharan Africa

In January 2017, Business Insider announced that it would be launching a new sub-saharan site in partnership with Ringier Africa Digital Publishing.[16][17]Henry Blodget––co-founder, CEO, and global Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider––said of the partnership, “Ringier ... is the ideal partner to help us bring to sub-saharan Africa [our] unique voice and attitude.”[18] Former Ventures Africa journalist David Adeleke is the editor for Business Insider SSA.[citation needed]

CEO and Staff Background

Business Insider's CEO and Editor-In-Chief Henry Blodget is a Yale history graduate who previously worked on Wall Street until he was banned for life from the securities industry because of his violations of securities laws and subsequent civil trial, which ended with a $2 million fine plus a $2 million disgorgement and the permanent ban in 2003.[19][20] Nicholas Carlson, whose past experiences include Internet.com and Gawker Media's Silicon Valley gossip blog, Valleywag, is Deputy Editor. Senior Editor Jim Edwards' previous position was Managing Editor at Adweek.[citation needed]

Reception

In January 2009, the Clusterstock section appeared in Time's "Best 25 Financial Blogs,"[21] and the Silicon Alley Insider section was listed in PC Magazine's "Our Favorite Blogs 2009."[22] 2009 also saw Business Insider's selection as an official Webby honoree for Best Business Blog.[23]

In 2012, Business Insider was named to the Inc. 500. In 2013, the publication was once again nominated in the Blog-Business category at the Webby Awards.[24] In January 2014, The New York Times reported that Business Insider's web traffic was comparable to that of The Wall Street Journal.[25] In 2017, Digiday included imprint Insider as a candidate in two separate categories–"Best New Vertical" and "Best Use of Instagram"–at their annual Publishing Awards.[26]

The website has, however, faced criticism for what critics consider its clickbait-style headlines.[27][28][29] In 2013, The New Yorker criticized the website for prioritizing publishing speed over accuracy.[30] In 2018, the website received criticism from some media outlets after deleting a controversial column about Scarlett Johansson.[31][32]